Crimson Echo (2 page)

          
I pulled into the campus and stared in awe at the colossal Victorian building, with its three stories and two wings. It looked more like a large office building that you see in New York, except for a thousand or so trees that made it look like a forest. I followed a group of cars around the school until I found the parking lot.

           At Echo High it was an oddity to see a few higher end cars in the lot, but here at Emporia there was nothing but fancy sports cars with shiny rims—what more would you expect from a fancy private school? I pulled into a parking space,
shut off the engine, smoothed out my hair and grabbed my bag as I tried to steady my breathing.

           Tiny flashes of the fire began to flood my mind now. My chest became tight and my breathing ragged as imagined myself back there. I clutched the steering wheel, trying to pull myself back to reality. I focused my attention on a familiar dark haired boy picking up his keys off of the ground and my breathing became steady again.

           Once I had myself under control, I stepped out of my car and the cold air hit me right away. I wrapped my coat tightly around myself and trailed behind a group of people that hadn’t noticed my hesitation at an approach. They looked to be about my age, headed toward a large square fountain with a statue of a lion in the center, spewing water from its mouth.

          
A stone path led around the fountain to a set of double doors, I ducked under the waterfall of rain dribbling down the roof and into the main hall. Mr. Ayala stood inside and directed everyone to the cafeteria to wait for further instructions. I practically put my nails through the strap on my bag as I stood in the hallway.

          I entered the lunch room, but stayed near the double doors as I searched the room for a face that I recognized. The busy chatter of students catching up after two weeks off from school made me anxious. Large crowds make me nervous anyway and I knew I had to be close to an exit incase I panicked. I felt like people were staring at me, every eye flickered in my direction. Curiosity painted their expressions. A lump formed in my throat and I had the sudden urge to head for the hills.

“Oh Tristan, thank God you’re here.” Faith smiled, walking through the doors.

“Thank God
you’re
here! I was about to bolt.” I admitted sheepishly.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t show up at all today. I was a little surprised to see you.”

“You didn’t think I would miss my first day at Emporia did you?”

“Well…” she paused. “I know how you hate change.”

“True, but we’ve wanted to explore this place for years. Now we can’t be charged with breaking and entering.”

“I forgot all about that. We never had a chance to check this place out before
it was re-opened.” She frowned as she smoothed out her skirt.

“Why are you dressed like a Catholic school girl? You look like Britney Spears.”

“Mission accomplished!” She twirled her hair playfully. “Besides, I wanted to make a good impression on my first day.”

“Oh, you’ll make an impression alright. I don’t really
think this is a Catholic school though.”

“Boys always love a school girl.” She batted her eyes. “Oh my God, don’t be obvious about it, but you have to turn around! That boy I saw at the mall is here.
” She slung the words together as she stared open-mouthed at something behind me.

“You mean that boy that you
stalked
?” I laughed.

“Would you just turn around and look at him?”

“Where, I don’t see him?
” I said as I looked around the crowded lunch room.

“Right there,” She pointed across the room
with about as much subtlety as an elephant. “Tall,

dark
and gorgeous!” Her eyebrows rose to emphasize the last part.

            It was then that I first saw him, walking in slow motion like something out of a movie—the wind in his hair and cheesy music rising in accompaniment to his easy stride. He was flanked by a sea of teenagers following him around like he was a God.  He made no effort to blend into the background like I always did. He liked all of the attention. He talked and laughed with his entourage not noticing that all eyes were on him.

           I looked up only
to find him staring back at me. I darted my eyes to the ground and I could feel my cheeks burn. He had obviously heard us talking about him or more than likely he saw Faith pointing like a buffoon. I casually looked around the room trying not to be caught staring at him again, but his gaze was still locked on mine. A slight smile formed on his lips as he nodded his head and continued to walk on by.

“He was looking right at you!” Faith squealed. “You have to get with him, so I can live vicariously through you!”

“Yeah right, like that’s going to happen.” I disregarded her last comment.

“You have as good a chance as anyone else, besides everyone knows you’re the pretty one.” She reminded me. I had never giving much thought to how attractive I was— usually I complained about how completely plain I was. I had always wanted to be a platinum blonde with blue eyes, rather than the dirty blonde tresses and murky green eyes I was born with.

“Go after him!” She poked at me.

I ignored her as a loud commotion broke out across the room.

            Mrs. Ragsdale, the hardnosed English teacher with silver hair was in the corner breaking up a fight between two eighth graders. Though she looked fragile, she could intimidate the burliest of men. She wore a white collared shirt and a blue denim skirt that hung to her ankles every day. She never changed. For as long as I’ve known her she’s worn the same uniform. I imagined her closet looking like something you only see in the movies, where one section is devoted to nothing but white shirts and the other half is long denim skirts.

“I’ll be right back
I need to talk to Mrs. Ragsdale about my report.”

“Teacher’s pet,” Faith roll
ed her eyes. “Make sure to put in a good word for me, I don’t have my paper either.”

“That’s because you didn’t do yours!” I laughed. 

               I shuffled nervously toward my English teacher. I had a good argument sorted out in my head. It was all true too. I couldn’t hand in my paper because it was still in my locker and was probably nothing more than soot and ash at this point. Being a good student, I hoped she would understand my dilemma.

“Mrs. Ragsdale,” I started. “I need to talk to you about my paper.”

She never made eye contact; she patrolled the crowded cafeteria with her eyes and leaned an ear in to show she was listening to me.

“I don’t have my paper—”

“Hmmm,” she cut me off, jutting her chin upward. The hard lines in her face creased and showed her age and the underneath side of her neck trembled as she spoke.  “Out of everyone, I expected yours to be ready. I can’t cut you any slack and you know I don’t tolerate excuses, now get back in line.” She still hadn’t looked at me. Maybe she wouldn’t be so scary if she would actually look at you when you talked to her. Then again looking into her eyes might turn a person to stone. Her hands flew to her hips and she waited for me to move.

“But the fire…” I gave it one last shot.

“I said get back in line, I don’t like repeating myself.” She roared, cutting me off and pointing back at the crowd.

               I turned around feeling deflated after getting the brush off and made my way back to the line that never moved. I would just have to accept an “F” and make it up through extra credit, I thought to myself. I kept my head down and muttered under my breath about how unfair she was.

            Before I was able to clear a few feet I stopped suddenly and fell backwards trying to catch my balance as I hit the cold, stone floor. I felt my face turn bright red, I knew everyone would gasp and the whole room would stop to look at the poor clumsy girl sprawled out in the middle of the cafeteria. I kept my head down and started to get up when a hand reached out to help me.

I grabbed the hand and felt weightless as I was lifted to my feet.

“Thank you,” I whispered, hoping no one had noticed me fall. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.” I looked up and it was the boy from the mall again.

“It’s quite alright. I wasn’t the one sent hu
rling to the ground. I think I should be the one apologizing.” He pushed his black hair out of his face and smiled. His crystal blue eyes peered back at me from behind a set of thick lashes, which made me uneasy— he was much too striking to be so nice.

“Have we… have we met before?” I
stuttered as I stared into his eyes.

“No, I would remember if I had met you before.” He smiled
charmingly.

“There’s something about you that’s so familiar.”

“You’re from Echo High, right?”

“Yes, it’s my first day here
.” I looked down at my shoes.

“Well, I hope everyone makes y
ou feel welcome here.”

“Thank you, that’s really nice of you.”

“Can I carry your books to class for you to make up for knocking you over?” He asked.

“You don’t have to do that. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? I’m very good at carrying books.” He laughed.

“Really, I’m fine. Don ‘t worry about it.”

“I still plan on making this up to you.” He insisted. “I’ll think of something and when I do I’ll find you, deal?”

“Umm, yeah, sure, I guess.” I stuttered.

When I reached Faith, she could hardly contain herself. “You freaking talked to him! You freaking talked to the hottest guy in the school! Tell me everything he said!”

“He didn’t really say much,” I admitted
, playing it off.

“Well what did he say? C’mon spill it!”

“He apologized for knocking me down and he said he wanted to make it up to me, but his eyes—you should have seen them. I’ve never seen anyone’s eyes so blue before. They were intense.”

“He wants to make it up to you!” She clapped.
“That’s a good thing. It sounds like he wants to take you out on a date.”

“He didn’t say that, besides
I’ve never even been on a date.” I whispered.

“I can give you a makeover. You can borrow something of mine and I’ll do your hair and makeup. This is going to be so much fun!”
She hugged me excitedly.

“I’m not sure I’m ready for that. Why would he want to go out with me anyway?”

“Ugh!” Faith moaned dropping her hands to her sides like a two year old throwing a tantrum. “Why do you always have all the fun?”

“Lucky I guess.” I
rolled my eyes at her.

“Well, if you don’t go out with him, I will!”

“Fine, I’ll think about it.” I gave in so that she would drop the conversation.

“I thought you’d feel that way.” She smirked.

              After an hour and a half we finally received our new class schedules with our new room numbers and a map of the building, which I was sure would come in handy. Thankfully everything would continue the same way here as it had at Echo High.    Mrs. Ragsdale instructed us to treat the school and its students with respect and then we were told to go to our third period class. Faith and I followed a long winding hallway in search of room 237.

          
The hallways were dimly lit and goose bumps rose on my arms as my imagination ran wild. The carpets in the halls were a dark chocolate color and the walls were a deep mahogany, with large paintings of Greek mythology hanging a foot apart. In between each perfectly placed picture hung gold sconces with lit candles casting soft shadows on the dark carpet. It had an eerie feeling about it, but it reminded me of an old castle like you see in cartoons where the princess is being held against her will and is waiting for her prince to come and rescue her.

        Third period is art with Ms. King; she has fiery red hair, a soothing voice and an encouragingly upbeat personality. It was safe to say she was my favorite teacher. She’s really goofy and tries to fit in with all of her students. Last year a girl named Kathy tried to teach her a hip hop move, we all had a big laugh at that. She was one of the teachers that you just knew cared about you.

           I sat down at a lab table with high barstools and traced the etchings in the desk with my fingertips as I waited for class to start. The carvings were symbols and words written in a strange language that I couldn’t read or maybe it was my imagination running away again.

Faith and I shared an art station with Everett and Chelsea, who always came in at the last minute.

“Hey dolls!” Chelsea smiled, taking a seat beside me.

“Hey ladies.”
Faith joked as Everett pulled a stool out and sat across from me.

“I told you not to call me that!” He shot faith a look. “You troll!”

“Good one Everett!” I laughed and everyone joined in.

        Chelsea was the eccentric artist with snow white hair and a pink peek-a-boo fringe to establish her individuality. She wore neon everything, mostly neon leggings and high-tops. She
was very pretty and had the longest eyelashes I have ever seen. She was always getting into trouble for batting her eyes at all the boys; she is a big flirt—to say the least. I think she spent more time fluttering her lashes then she did anything else, if I didn’t know her so well, I would swear she had a tick.